BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

If your idea of a surfer god is a tall, chiseled
blonde Caucasian then you’ve come to the wrong part of the world.

Luke Landrigan is a local hero in Barangay Urbiztondo
in San Juan, La Union, but upon first glance you know that the Australian genes
in him make him a close cousin to Kelly Slater and those other surf stars who
take mother nature for a ride.

Jay-R Esquivel is nothing of that sort. For sure he
isn't tall, is reed thin and sports a hairstyle that Rick Astley would approve. ‘Rick who,’
you ask? Exactly, I answer.

Esquivel is 17 years old. He’s dropped out of school
– only for now he claims – to strike while the iron is hot. He is the other
surfing champion (aside from Landrigan) from La Union, the surfing capital of northern Philippines.

His home is located at the beachfront where all his
relatives live. Local surfers or tambays know where he lives. “Yung bahay na
blue yung bubungan,” they point.

I get the feeling that this is what Liverpudians feel
when they point to the house where John Lennon was raised by his Aunt Mimi in
Liverpool.

The house is a non-descript one. It’s small. Like a
studio only with two partitions with a small sala that also doubles as a bed
room with a small area that houses a one-burner kitchen. I used the word
‘small’ thrice in the last two sentences so you must have an idea of how small
it is. There you go. I used it again.

The cabinet that houses the television is littered
with over two dozen trophies that Jay-R has brought home in his young career as
a surfer. “Meron pang iba,” he apologizes and he does look embarrassed while
saying it. “Nandun sa isang bahay.”

Turns out Jay-R sometimes crashes in a cousin’s house
that is a few feet away.

The wall of Jay-R's sister is also a shrine to their late brother, Poks, one of the elder surfing gods of San Juan, La Union.

Jay-R took up surfing because of his late brother Ronnie 'Poks' Esquivel who was one of the first champions to come from this formerly
sleepy town in La Union that has since become a tourist destination.

What turned Poks into a legend was not only his
prowess on a surfboard but because he had only one leg that he was given during
birth. However, his disability didn’t stop Poks; it only made him more
determined to rise above it. He became surf champion and helped his family earn
money.

Unfortunately, the elder Esquivel suffered a fatal
heart attack at the age of 28 devastating the family.

Jay-R took up his mantle, his legacy, and the
responsibility as a breadwinner for his family at the age of 14.

He does stunts and tricks that you see from famous
surfers from the United States or Australia. Jay-R admits to watching surfing
videos on YouTube to learn the tricks of the trade. But he also says that he
improvises a lot once he’s out there.

For all his fame, Jay-R is far from the wages of a
maximum contract PBA player or even a Phil Younghusband. He doesn’t make much
when he wins surfing competitions. Once, he sold his prize, a longboard, for
ten thousand pesos that he gave to his father. When he isn’t competing, he
teaches newbies the finer points of surfing for about P400 an hour (he keeps
half the amount while the other two hundred is for the rental of surfboards).

On bad days, he makes P400 but on good days, he can
quadruple that amount. Good days for Esquivel and the surfers from La Union
usually means bad weather for everyone else.

Those are days when the weather is bad and typhoon
signals are raised. Jay-R and the other wave worshippers race to the beach,
surfboards in hand, to ride waves of 15-feet or more.

Only when the waves begin to crash the seawall (one
such partition also protects the Esquivel compound) do the surfers seek
shelter. When the typhoon gets worse, Jay-R and his family retreat to the house
of an uncle that is literally a jump away from their doorstep. Their uncle’s
house has a concrete wall and stands two stories high. The seawater enters
their home but is only about an inch or two high as the compound and the other
housing nearby are about six feet above the beach. I wonder if it gets frightening since the
have a close up look at the fury of mother nature and the power of the oceans.
“Sanayan lang,” grins Jay-R.

Now at 17 years of age, Jay-R says that surfing has
been good to him and his family. Because of a talent for riding the waves, he
has been to other parts of the country where he otherwise would never have a
chance to visit like Siargao, Baler, Cebu, Davao, and Palawan. He’s also competed in
Malaysia and Indonesia where he has won awards in his age group.

A few tourists come over and ask if they could have
their photo taken with Jay-R. he looks at me as if he is asking permission and
I assure him it is all right. He does so and smiles rather awkwardly.

There are three celebrities from Barangay Urbiztondo.
There’s Luke Landrigan (you can make a case for a fourth if you add his
Labrador, River, who also surfs and is featured in Surf Town’s adverts) who is said to be dating celebrity Sam Pinto,
expatriated Manileño and rock star Marcus Adoro of the Eraserheads who
purchased a home in the area so he could commune with the waves, and Esquivel.

On a small strip filled with Barneys, Bettys, An
Emmas, socialites looking for more than surfing action, foreigners and locals,
it’s easy to miss Jay-R who hangs out at a tent where he awaits those asking
for surfing lessons. He walks barefoot (the only time he wears shoes is when he
plays hoops in a nearby court or goes out of town). He admits to being a beach
bum and likes it that way.

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Who am I?

What I do for a living?

I also write regularly for Business Mirror; philstar.com; abs-cbnnews.com, and rappler.com.

I am also currently the media officer for the Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup, the National Basketball Training Center, and the Flying V Davao Thunders.

I do PR consultancy for a variety of clients that I do not want to divulge.

I used to teach journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University hand have given lectures about journalism, new media, marketing, and public relations at the Ateneo, UP Diliman, UST, San Beda, Immaculate Conception Academy, Miriam College, Mindanao State University, FIFA seminars, and a few other schools and organizations.

I used to write for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines Free Press, and Maxim Philippines. I have also contributed to FHM, Men's Health, Tower Sports NBA, Rebound, and a few other sports, interior design, and lifestyle magazines as well. Most recently, I was the editor-in-chief of PBA Life, the Official Lifestyle Magazine of the Philippine Basketball Association as well as Season 40 edition of Hardcourt, the season-in-review.

My blog, Bleachers' Brew, serves as a hub for many of my writings (but not all as there are some that are exclusive).

When I have free time, I listen to my collection of over 5,000 CDs, read, watch DVDs, or walk my dog around the subdivision.

Liverpool FC

My all-time favorite football team. I bleed Liverpool Red.

Books in my collection: Mad World

CDs in my collection: Movin' Up Movin' On

A compilation of some of the best underground punk rock bands in the Philippines.